I qualify for a work study job at my school. My award is about 1800 dollars. Do I get paid 1800 directly to me and am only allowed to use on education? And do I work for the 1800 plus minimum wage or only the 1800?
It depends upon how the school does it. Some pay directly to the student and others deduct it from the bill. You only work for the 1800 (at federal minimum wage) and nothing over unless the school has the funds or grant to pay the additional. None of mine were ever able to put in the number of hours needed to max out their work study. Sometimes the hours you work vary week to week depending on what you are doing. Watch the schools work study jobs for openings and apply for what you can do. Mine have done alumni newsletter writing, IT and sewing in the costume shop. Some jobs you can end up with a lot of hours and max out quickly and others can be more on demand or just a few per week. Most school will limit you to one work study job. Sometimes no one wants a work study job so they are willing to pay you. One of mine flipped burgers for pay since no one else wanted it as work study. So she had a work study job and the burger job for cash.
At a work study job, that is the max you can make. You can also get a non ws job. Is that 1800 for the semester of for the year? Mine was 3600 for the year, and I will be maxing that out by the end.
All the work study awards in my knowledge were paid directly to the students as regular paychecks. You can spend the money on whatever you want. Your pay will be at least minimum wage. Some jobs/some schools may pay more.
Your work study is a bucket containing $1800. You receive it as you earn it. If you earn less than $1800 during the school year, you lose the remainder. The employer can only pay you a maximum of $1800. If you earn it all before the end of the year, you would probably lose the job. However, I’ve seen work study jobs where, if you used up your work study award, they could switch you to just a regular student worker & you could keep working.
A few schools have their own work study programs and they might take it off the bill, but that’s not the federal work study program.
- You earn the money UP TO the grant amount, so in your case $1800. See if that is per semester or per year.
- You find a job and there is an amount set for the pay. It might be more than minimum wage for that state. I've seen them posted for $12 and $15 per hour at my daughter's school, and I think the minimum wage in that state is $7.25. Most of the jobs pay about $9/hr.
- She gets a paycheck and it is just like any other pay check. She can use it for whatever she wants. Beer, pizza, trips to Vegas, tuition.
- If you get close to the max you were awarded, contact the FA office and see if more funds can be awarded. You might not have any more room in you FA package, but if you do, the school has to find the extra funds. Often student don't work all their hours so there might be funds left.
I don’t believe the school is required to “find the extra funds” if the student exceeds their federal work study allotment…even if there is still unfilled need.
Could you provide some evidence this is a mandate…because in our experience…once the qorkmstudy money ran out…to continue the job…the school had to foot the bill…and sometimes that wasn’t possible. Our work study employers helped monitor our hours so we would not exceed the amount provided to us.
I meant the school has to find the extra funds before the award can be increased, not that the school is mandated to find the fund.
If the student wants to work more, and hasn’t exceeded his maximum FA award, some schools have additional funds that weren’t awarded at the beginning of the year or weren’t used because students didn’t work enough hours.
Most schools over award work study because they know everyone who is eligible will not work a job. There really are no “extra” funds. The school can choose to pay you out of their own budget, but it is highly unlikely that there will be extra federal funds as schools do not want to risk having their funding cut due to a lack of participants they either use it or lose it
Okay, but my daughter was told to check back later in the term for funds freed up by others not working if she needed more hours.
And we’ve heard tales of kids not able to find WS jobs available or their preference. So get the jump on this early.
And don’t be picky about those work study first jobs. The call center or the dining hall are jobs…and are usually easier to get than desk jobs innthe library or dorm, or a job with a professor.
So just to clarify there is an important distinction between federal work study and work study jobs. As the name implies federal work study jobs are funded, depending on the nature of the work, partially or fully by the federal government.
Some federal requirements:
“A school must make FWS jobs reasonably available to all eligible students at the school. To the maximum extent practicable, a school must provide FWS jobs that complement and reinforce each recipient’s education or career goals.”
Federal funding for students “employed as reading tutors for children, mathematics tutors for children, or in a family literacy project…may be as high as 100%”
Schools may also fund their own work study programs…but if you have FWS as part of your award make sure to identify yourself as a FWS recipient when applying for jobs. My daughter was having a tough time finding a campus job but once she specifically identified herself as a FWS recipient she got several interviews and accepted a great job tutoring in a city school. If your school is doing FWS right, students shouldn’t need to beg for a cafeteria job. And the best part of FWS is that it does not increase the students expected contribution in the subsequent financial aid cycle.